Murder, domestic drama brimming
Feisty females put their brain power to work on crimes
Book Review
“Murder at Marble House” by Alyssa Maxwell ( Kensington, $ 15, 330 pages) Newport, Rhode Island, during the end of the 19th century, had its very own aristocracy, and that included the ( Cornelius) Vanderbilt family. Emma Cross is a poor Vanderbilt relation with an independent streak. She is struggling to establish herself as a journalist despite the phenomenal gender prejudice she encounters. A society page reporter, she has bigger goals.
In her fourth outing, those goals take a back seat when her young and beautiful cousin Consuelo disappears rather than marrying the European duke her mother has selected. Alva Vanderbilt enlists Emma to find her errant daughter, and Emma agrees — although she hopes to help Consuelo avoid the marriage.
In the midst of this domestic mayhem, a fortuneteller — invited by Alva to persuade Consuelo to make the match — ends up murdered.
The ending is a bit disappointing. Maybe you can’t fight city hall. But Emma perseveres. The book is several cuts above the usual feisty heroine tale; it provides a good picture of life among the privileged — and not- so- privileged — classes in what’s been called “Gilded Newport.”
“Board Stiff” by Annelise Ryan ( Kensington, $ 7.99, 360 pages) Irrepressible assistant medical examiner ( and former nurse) Mattie Winston continues to wreak havoc in Sorenson, Wisconsin.
Her latest adventure starts with the death of an executive at a nursing home. It appears to be murder — with plenty of suspects, as many of the residents believed he was selectively killing off the patients whose care was most expensive. But the case is not the only thing on Mattie’s plate. The investigation puts her close to Detective Steve Hurley. The two cannot be in the same place for five minutes without needing to slip into a nearby room for a little hanky- panky. This presents a number of problems, one of which is that Mattie’s continued employment depends on her relationship with Hurley being businessonly. Another is his discovery of a teenage daughter he never knew existed and who now lives with him. So there is a lot of domestic drama going on, even without the nursing home’s lawyers trying to quietly derail the investigation, the group of residents who meet in the courtyard to smoke something suspiciously herbal, and the illicit relationship between the victim and one of the nurses.
Mattie’s fans will not be disappointed. She’s as feisty and independent as she was in her four previous outings.
“The Ghost Fields” by Elly Griffiths ( Houghton Mifflin, $ 25, 370 pages) Ruth Galloway, the unforgettable forensic archaeologist who works along the northern English coast, is back with her seventh case. It has been particularly hot in Norfolk that summer, but things don’t boil over until the discovery of a World War II plane with the body of the pilot still in it. However, Ruth soon realizes that the body is not that of the pilot — it’s the body of Fred Blackstock, a member of a local family believed to have died at sea. The Blackstock family already has a lot going on; the grandfather is sliding into dementia, the son runs a pig farm, and the daughter wants to be an actress. Other complications ensue, including Ruth’s awkward relationship with DCI Harry Nelson, the father of her delightful daughter, and the arrival of an American television company wanting to make a documentary about the buried airfield.
The archaeology and geography of the place are so well- drawn they might as well be characters. Griffiths, in fact, does an excellent job of making all the characters, including the minor ones, burst with life. As new issues arrive, they cope — or don’t cope — in their varied ways. The reader is kept guessing, but in a good way.
And Ruth is a terrific character: unglamorous, smart, downtoearth and completely believable as a no- longer- young woman who tries to balance her work, the demands of single motherhood and a bit of a personal life.